The Best Work Gloves for Those Cold Winter Months

Cold, stiff hands are more than a nuisance. They can cause you to lose your grip climbing a ladder or mishandle a running power tool, like a circular saw or a chainsaw, all with deadly consequences.

For keeping those digits toasty, here are some options to consider for all cold and cold–wet conditions.

Mitts

Duluth Trading Co.

Only mitts can keep your hands truly warm in the coldest weather. Broadly speaking, there are two types, those with a trigger finger and those without. The trigger finger is necessary for hunters, obviously, but also those operating nail guns or power tools like circular saws and chainsaws. Select a mitt with a removable liner or one with enough room that will allow you to wear knitted mittens or knitted glove liners.

These Duluth’s Yellowknife mitts are a more technologically advanced version of some mitts that I’ve owned and used for decades (mine were designed for Alaskan Pipeline welders). My gloves have a thermally advanced liner, but the liner is not removable, which is an important feature on these mitts from Duluth Trading. Their pull-out fleece liners serve as gloves in their own respect and you can pull them out to dry overnight.

And it’s hard to beat U.S.-made military surplus in terms of effectiveness and low cost. These Army-surplus mitts have left and right trigger fingers as well as wool-blend mitt liners.

Another great thing about Army surplus mitts is that you can also use wool glove liners in case you need more dexterity, and at these prices, you can afford to own several pairs to swap out during the day when your hands sweat, or if you’re working in wet conditions. I can vouch for military surplus liners; I’ve used them for years.

I own and like these SwedePro chainsaw mitts. They provide reasonable warmth though they’re not as warm as the options above. They have chain-stopping material sewn into the back of the left mitt, the hand closest to the chainsaw bar. Yeah, it’s unlikely that your left hand would make contact with a chain on a modern saw, but you never know. Mine are roomy enough that I can use glove liners in them for extreme weather.

Gloves

Mechanix Wear

For all the outdoor work I do wearing mitts, I still own several different pairs of gloves to help me work in a variety of conditions. Owning several pairs allows me to swap gloves to adapt to changing conditions but it also gives me extra gloves to let dry.

For cold weather work in all but extreme conditions, I’ve been wearing Mechanix Wear for the last several winters. They have more dexterity than mitts, obviously. The company’s new Winter Impact Gen 2 looks like a good bet. They’re very similar to my gloves but have improved padding protection on the back.

A less expensive and more utilitarian glove that I’ve been using this fall are these fleece-lined gloves with a flexible PVC coating that extends past the back knuckles. The gloves are water repellent and offer outstanding grip. Their manufacturer rates them for temperatures down to the low 20s.

Yeah, you have to buy them in bulk, and they’re quite inexpensive when you buy them that way. The good news is that everybody in your family or your crew will have warm hands and gloves that they can change out if they get soggy.

Built from ripstop nylon with a zipper pouch that conceals and protects the small rechargeable battery, they are a technically advanced solution especially appropriate for users in extreme conditions. They have three adjustable heat settings, appropriate to the air temperature and the amount of aerobic activity you are doing.

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